


Loving you

by Mysana



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types, The Incredible Hulk - All Media Types
Genre: Bruce Banner Has Issues, Bruce Banner-centric, Bruce Feels, F/M, Natasha-centric, POV Bruce Banner, POV Natasha Romanov, Post-Avengers: Age of Ultron (Movie), learning to love, possible Asexuality
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-19
Updated: 2016-11-19
Packaged: 2018-08-31 23:43:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 873
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8598481
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mysana/pseuds/Mysana
Summary: Short Bruce Banner/Natasha Romanov fluffy feels.





	1. I left and now I'm back again

Natasha insists that love is for children and Bruce smiles and says nothing. 

Because for Bruce, loving Natasha is a warm bath. It’s soothing and comfortable and makes everything better. In a quiet sort of way. 

Loving Natasha are those moments when the sun is going down and they sit on the couch together under a pile of blankets and read. It’s that moment, when he first wakes up, and feels safe for the first time in who knows how long. The way she rubs her hair with the white towels as she leaves the shower and the way she drinks black coffee while watching him. (And coffee with lots of cream and sugar otherwise.)

Fighting with Natasha is playing hot potato because it burns the whole time and someone has to lose.

Leaving Natasha is like nothing Bruce has every experienced. Running away should be freeing? So why does it feel like he can’t breathe. 

Bruce is sitting in a little tiny cafe in California. He’s wearing a t-shirt and jeans and he’s tan. But his feels tight and he misses the way Natasha would rub his back after de-Hulking. He sees her in every red hair. Every deadpan comment and every flat faced smile. 

Loving Natasha has nothing to do with sex and every to do with her. With the way she still doesn’t always get metaphors and similes but also sometimes does when she says she doesn’t. It has to do with the way she pretends to love Vodka when she prefers cider. The way she has a ridiculously fuzzy robe Bruce likes to steal. The way she paints little designs on her nails before covering them in blood red polish. 

These are the thoughts running through Bruce’s mind as he stands, pays, and takes a taxi to the train station. These are the thoughts he has as he buys a cross country ticket and finds a window seat. These are the thoughts he has as he leaves the New York train station and boards a taxi which flies through the stop lights. These are the thoughts running through his mind as he enters Avengers Tower and takes the private elevator up. 

Then he gets there. 

And he wonders. 

He turns to leave and she is standing right there. And he can’t leave. Because she is all he has seen for the months he’s been away and she’s changed. Without him. 

And suddenly Bruce knows that loving Natasha is a silent drug. A quiet addiction. And he finds he doesn’t mind.

Natasha insists that love is for children but Bruce knows she doesn’t believe that anymore.


	2. A Monster, A Man

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Loving people isn't metaphors, it's moments.

Natasha was sent to Calcutta to recruit a monster, and finds a man instead. She rather things that’s where it all started. To find someone so different from her self. Perhaps she hoped his goodness would rub off on her. 

She thinks about trying to seduce him, but decides it’s more likely to just scare him away. She doesn’t mention it to Clint but he answers her anyway.

“Don’t over think it Nat. He’d be good for you, and if it’s going to work then he’ll have to like the real you. Not one of the masks.”

Not the most elegant way to put it, but it makes his point clearly enough. She still puts on her armour before she goes through. Then she reaches the door to the lab and stops. She doesn’t know how to interact naturally. How to do it like a normal person. She almost doesn’t. 

She does. 

She speaks to him and listens. She likes him more than she thought. She looks into him and finds far less than is comfortable. Betty Ross is married now. A child on the way. No other past relations are noted down. If it’s true then he two of them have equal experience in romantic endeavours. Not, of course, that she wants anything to do with romance. or love. or home.

 

When Bruce comes home, he uses metaphors to explain love. Natasha tells him simply that,

“Love is for children”

And she really wishes she still thought that was true. But she’s seen love. Real, true love. 

She’s seen Clint and Phil’s love. Like coffee mugs and adrenaline rushes. Like a briefcase smelling of ink and a bow left on the table. Like gun oil and trust.

She’s seen Pepper and Tony. Like the edge of a cliff, each holding the other up. Sharp edges and soft words. Less romantic more platonic. But love none the less. 

She’s starting to understand Steve and Bucky. Blood and bruises, warm water and stitches. A soft hand on a cold back. 

Natasha has seen love and she thinks, maybe, possibly, that she feels it too. She didn’t think it was possible. 

Natasha thinks maybe their love is Bruce’s curly hair in her face on Thursday morning. The way she forgets what she was doing when he starts talking. It could be the way they hold hands, sweaty and awkward like teenagers. She thinks maybe the grey in Bruce’s hair and the way he smiles (just for her), maybe that is love. 

Natasha went to Calcutta, a monster, and in meeting a man. She too became one.


End file.
